Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Apr 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994aj....107.1546s&link_type=abstract
The Astronomical Journal, vol. 107, no. 4, p. 1546-1550
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
15
Binary Stars, Emission Spectra, Gamma Rays, Novae, White Dwarf Stars, Hubble Space Telescope, Hydrostatics, Stellar Mass, Thermonuclear Reactions
Scientific paper
About 1/3 of recently observed classical novae eject matter highly enriched in neon. This has prompted suggestions that the underlying white dwarfs in these systems are massive, and are composed of oxygen, neon, and magnesium. O-Ne-Mg WDs in novae have been suggested as important sources of Al-26, and likely sources of gamma rays produced in the beta(+) decay of Na-22. I examine two observational constraints presently available on the masses of white dwarfs in O-Ne-Mg novae. These are (1) the ejected shell mass, and (2) the time t3 to decline 3 mag from maximum brightness. Both indicators suggest a wide range of white dwarf masses, including low mass degenerates, in O-Ne-Mg novae. This is in contradiction to the hypothesis of massive progenitors and progeny. In an accompanying paper, Shara & Prialnik (1993) demonstrate how He shell flashes can create an O-Ne-Mg envelope on a nonmassive, C-O white dwarf. Novae occurring on such white dwarfs will eject copious quantities of neon. Here I point out that such white dwarfs can also produce all the Al-26 needed to satisfy observations; that the Na-22 gamma-ray flux from neon novae is likely to be most readily observable in slow O-Ne-Mg nova eruptions; and that the recent suggestion of a very small fraction of neon novae in the M31 bulge is readily explainable.
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